To The Beautiful Soul Of The Monk Who Challenged the Way We Think
Thich Nhat Hanh made his name globally doing human rights and reconciliation work during the Vietnam War,
which led Martin Luther King Jr. to nominate him for a Nobel Prize.
In 1966 Martin Luther King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize and said:
“I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of [the Nobel Peace Prize] than this gentle monk from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”
Me? I cry when I hear him speak.
He is beyond precious.
He is beyond gracious.
He is way beyond our mundane.
He lifts our spirits & touches our souls in recognition of who we are.
He epitomises the very, very best of us.
He is kindness, love and compassion for everyone, and I do mean everyone.
He is such a beautiful treasure.
Thank you dear Thay for blessing us with your divine presence!
With love & respect
Pam ❣️????
'You Have A Cosmic Body'
Thich Nhat Hanh
[Plum Village Summer Retreat]
“Your cosmic presence will live on eternally.
This physical body of yours is not the only body you have: you have a cosmic body.
If you look into your physical body, you’ll see your cosmic body:
The air, the water, the heat, the soil and you are made of stars.
We know very well that without the sunshine there would be no life on earth; so you are made of sunshine.
The sun is a star. One of the biggest stars in the whole galaxy and that star is very close.
And because it is there, life on earth is possible.
So you are a son of the sun. You are a daughter of the sun. And you can call that star Father Sun.
And you are a daughter of Mother Earth and you are a son of Mother Earth. You are made of stars.
And if you look deeply, you’ll know that this physical body is not the only body you have, you also have a cosmic body.
Suppose you contemplate a wave that is born on the ocean.
That wave has come from the ocean and she’ll go home to the ocean in order to be reborn again as another wave.
So the wave has a wave body and also has an ocean body.
And the moment when the wave realises she has an ocean body, she will lose all her fear: Fear of birth and fear of death.
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Look at the clouds in the sky.
They also come from the ocean.
And if they meditate well enough, they see that although they have a cloud body, they also have an ocean body.
As rain is borne from the cloud, the cloud realises that he has an ocean body.
So when he is no longer a cloud, he still has his ocean body.
This takes you to the ultimate of the all of you and all that is, Nirvana.
And Nirvana is the true nature, the reality of god:
The nature of no ifs & buts, no this & that, no coming & going, but the true nature.
So you have a Nirvana body, a cosmic body & a god body.
And if we walk deeply in mindfulness, we can touch our cosmic body, touch the ultimate.
And we touch our nature of no birth and no death.
Your mindfulness meditation can bring deep insight and separate from you all kinds of fear.
It’s a simple practice.
And practicing mindfulness walking you can get in touch with not only the wonders of life of nourishing and of healing
But on the ultimate and be liberated from all fear and anxiety.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Brother Phap Dung, a senior disciple and monk who is helping to run Plum Village, France, says of his master and teacher,
In the ultimate dimension, there is continuation. We can cultivate this awareness of this nature, of no birth and no death,
this way of living in the ultimate dimension;
then slowly our fear of death will lessen.
This awareness also helps us be more mindful in our daily life,
to cherish every moment and everyone in our life.
One of the most powerful teachings that he shared with us before he got sick
was about not building a stupa [shrine for his remains] for him
and not putting his ashes in an urn for us to pray to.
He strongly commanded us not to do this.
I will paraphrase his message:
“Please do not build a stupa for me.
Please do not put my ashes in a vase, lock me inside, and limit who I am.
I know this will be difficult for some of you.
If you must build a stupa though,
please make sure that you put a sign on it that says,
‘I am not in here.’
In addition, you can also put another sign that says,
‘I am not out there either,’
and a third sign that says,
‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’”
Thich Nhat Hanh leading a walking meditation at the Plum Village practice centre in France in 2014. [PVCEB]